Last words
by Iseria Dweller
Summary: Friendship fic with light implications of Kurasame x Emina. Kazusa pays a last visit to his old friend before her execution. Inspired from an entry in the Crimson Codex. Slightly spoilerish.


The prison cell carried a strong scent of rust, mold and death. It was an incredibly inhumane place to be in. Kazusa had no idea how in the world did Emina managed to survive 48 hours being locked up in that particular hell hole.

This was no place for a lady to be in. Despite the odds, Emina Hanaharu greeted Kazusa with a very weak smile behind the bars.

"Hello, Kaz." His old classmate greeted him with a very weak smile. Her hair was apparently messy from the lack of a comb and a hair tie. She had been denying food and water, apparently. Kazusa had no idea how in the world could Emina smile throughout the mess they've made out of her.

"Emina…" Kazusa bent down. "What happened? They told me that you were arrested."

"Ah. Indeed, I am being held prisoner now, aren't I?" Emina's smile was an absolute painting of sadness by then.

"Whatever for?" Kazusa was confused. "There must be some kind of mistake!"

Emina shook her head. "No. There was no mistake made."

Before her friend could protest any further, the woman turned her back towards him, earning a very confuse look from the chocolate haired male. With a graceful sweep of her hair, she revealed a set of numbers tattooed along the back of her neck.

While they were seemingly a harmless set of numbers, innocently inked onto her skin, Kazusa could garner that they were the cause of her ultimate demise. Kazusa wondered how in the world did his life took a turn for the worse.

"There has to be!" Kazusa insisted. "Why in the world would they lock you up just for having a set of numbers tattooed across your neck?"

"These numbers indicate my original purpose." Emina replied, refusing to turn around to meet her friend's eyes. Shame, sadness and guilt colored her speech.

"Original purpose?" Kazusa couldn't believe his ears. What was happening to the people around him?

"A spy from the Milites." Emina's tone had lost all of it's cheerful luster. "I was trained from young to infiltrate the Peristylium as a student and assassinate the King."

Kazusa was stunned into silence. Emina continued. "But I guess I failed to carry that mission out. I could never put my heart into it after meeting so many wonderful people like you and…."

Her sentence lingered in the air.

_That person. _

The nameless man whom Kazusa and Emina had been spending a lot of time with. Kazusa vaguely remembered being told that he went by the name of Kurasame and that he was Class Zero's instructor. Apparently, he was sent to a suicide mission after the school council had reached a conclusion that he was only good for imparting knowledge to the students. No, the Peristylium had no need for such a person.

Anger welled up from the back of Kazusa's mind as he dwelled on why the Peristylium was so quick to offer all those 'slow' students, to Kurasame and why Kurasame had willingly marched to his death by offering his life force to that wretched summoner.

"In any case," Emina turned to face her friend. "I guess, I knew far too much about how Suzaku deals with things internally. So…I guess they're going to….you know."

Kazusa grabbed the rust covered steel bars, shaking violently at the thought of losing yet another important person in his life. "No! They're not going to kill you!"

Deep down, Kazusa knew that it was the truth. They are going to execute the woman for fear of what information she might divulge over to the Byakko faction should they let her walk free.

"You won't remember me."

Kazusa blinked back hot tears that threatened to fall from the corner of his eyes. He remembered someone else, that male by the name of Kurasame who had told him the same thing somewhere before.

The crystal would erase all of Emina's memories from Kazusa's mind but Kazusa knew that he would remember her, one way or another.

"That's not right." Kazusa commented. "I'm not going to forget you just like that."

"Nothing's right or fair in this world." Emina replied. "I know you won't forget about me just like that. I'm far too annoying anyways."

Kazusa laughed weakly. "Yeh, your nagging will always haunt me in my dreams."

The sound of approaching footsteps garnered both their attention. The guards were coming. Kazusa's visiting time was up.

"Goodbye, Kazusa." Emina watched as the guards ushered the scientist away.

Kazusa paused in mid step. "Emina, I have one last favor to ask of you."

"I will try my best to fulfill it." The woman replied.

"…Please say….hi to Kurasame for me…?"

At the mention of Kurasame's name, Emina's voice lifted itself back to it's cheery note.

"Why, of course I will. I'll be seeing him the first thing in the morning." The woman replied.

Kazusa's expression was one of absolute surprise.

"I'll be sure to send him your warm regards." Emina smiled. "Now, I would like to get some rest."

Kazusa nodded before being pushed out of the holding cell completely.

**Author's note:** Eh, I read from a translation of the Crimson Codex that Emina was apparently executed on December. I just had a tiny thought of, "What if Kazusa went down to talk to Emina for one last time before her execution took place?"

….Meh. This fandom is so full of angst, probably what I don't need after a bad day x.x' Poor Kazusa….


End file.
